New Level 1 HOF Party

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So, I wanted to try a big challenge, so am thinking up a new party for HOF that will start from Level 1. I'm looking for helpfull suggestions from anyone that has or has not tried this.
Some points I've already come up with:

1. My characters are going to level up quite quickly at the start as the experience from the Prologue and Chapter 1 enemies is not capped. No need for a muling character or other "tricks" to get level up's quicker.

2. Since my starting players will all be mince meat to the starting goblins, I'll need some characters to cast summons to start the game as they are more powerfull in HOF. My summons will be my front end fighters for quite some time(I actually like to use summons in HOF a lot anyway).

3. Wizards will be much less effective because they will advance in levels very quickly at the start, but won't have scrolls for the new levels until quite a ways further in the game. This sucks as I always have 1 wizard.

4. The ability to hit level 30 will be much more difficult.

5. The races with level penalties will be less effective for longer than those without and won't finish as strong. Deep Gnomes are likely very ineffective for a long time and I'll avoid even though I always have at least one. This actually brings more balance back to the original races.

 

Most casters get to use summons anyway, so you're covered unless you go out of your way to fill your ranks with Bards and warriors. A Wizard can be made into your party's diplomat or thief, or even both since you'll advance so fast, so you can at least compensate for the missing scrolls.

You can't legitimately get to level 30 with a party that starts at level 17 either, so you're not missing much. You're missing a single level towards the end and pretty soon not even that. Races with ECL penalties will keep the exp flowing, even more so now that you're deep into the "gain extra exp for kills" territory to begin with so that penalty will actually be erased FASTER than it would otherwise.

Good luck and have fun - you'll start steamrolling stuff once you hit level 10 or so, and that's quickly acquired.

 

That's exactly what I did with my first party, except I muled and squatted (not recommended though).

Jukka is right -- the races with level penalties will actually reach the same level as normal races. So you should load up on DG and Drow. you could have one human sorcerer in the party; because of dynamic xp, he will end up a couple levels higher than normal.

 

Well, I think I may have to throw the towel in on this idea. The warehouse on the docks has just too many goblins to keep up with my summons and my characters are not able to fight them yet without getting pummeled. I have got every experience points up to this point that I can and am not strong enough to take them out. If I leave and come back, I am completely surrounded by who is left.

 

Use stealth and enter the warehouse hidden. Attack once and leave the area afterwards. Use the space key often enough for micromanaging your party movement and you should be able outrun your enemies. Eventually you'll have to lure the goblins away from the exit but if you move fast and change direction often enough you should manage to leave without getting hit.

 

What level is your party by now? You should be able to load up all the spellcasters with summons, then go nuts. Don't forget to use invisibility sphere to protect the party while the summons fight

 

I can't recall what level they were at, but the only spells people have memorized are summons, so I have as many as I possibly could, and they can't keep up to all of the goblins. The summons don't last long enough, or get teamed up on and die. During the fight, my clerics can level up to get the powerfull summon Animate Dead, but I have to leave and rest to be able to use it. When I come back in, all my characters are surrounded and aren't able to summon anything before dieing. If I summon anything before entering, they don't come in with me.

 

Fight everything but the warehouses, and remember that you can go into town to get scrolls.

I think that you can also do a side quest or two in the town proper to get some XP.

Also, you can buff the summons. I'm not sure what 1st or 2nd level spells can make that much of a difference as you indicated you can't cast the 3rd level "animate dead", but the 3rd level wizard spell haste can make a huge difference.

I'd experiment with throwing in a few spells like bless, chant, bull's strength, barkskin, grease, protection from evil, mage armor, and web.

Cast the buffs on the summons, not the party. Sometimes fewer quality summons beats a couple extra in quantity.

 

You should be able to enter Lord Ulbrec's house. There you can find a book which can be used 3 times a day to summon an air elemental.
Those air elementals should be able to kill the goblins in the warehouse alone, but since you don't get XP for their kills only use them when absolutely needed and try to kill as many goblins as possible yourself. Aim your slings and bows at those which are brought down to almost death by the elementals.

And while you're in town you can pickpocket Ned's lucky knucky from one of the customers in Deidre's weapon shop. If you have very low pickpocket skill unequip your armor, buy a potion of master thievery from Oswald and/or drink the potion of cat's grace and do a little save/reload if necessary. The +2 luck will increase the wearer's damage output considerably.

 

I had no idea about the summoning book. That will definitely help out.

 

I don't think it's actually possible to pickpocket him without him noticing and going hostile (game over). After trying several times legitimately, I raised the skill to insane levels by abusing Bard song stacking and was still caught every time.
I eventually just Dominated him to pickpocket, but if you do that you can never enter the store again.

 

My deep gnome ranger with 16 natural dex and only 1 pickpocket skill and my half-orc barbarian with 18 natural dex and 1 pickpocket skill didn't need many attempts to succeed in pickpocketing, it's far easier to pickpocket him than the other HoF NPCs.
Unequip your armor, drink the two potions of master thievery you can buy from Oswald and the potion of cat's grace you can find at the docks and you'll succeed after a few attempts, my characters didn't even have to drink more than 1 potion to succeed, so a thief with some pickpocket skill should do well even without buffs.

 

PP must be bugged to hell in HOF as I've only ever succeeded in it with an apparent critical success roll, ie. after ~20 tries on average.

 

I just Finger of Death him, works wonders.

 

Eh.. and how, exactly, do you avoid the whole town turning hostile on you if you do that?

 

If you charm him, then insta-kill him while charmed with FoD, does the town still turn hostile?

 

Not a problem. Finger of Death is instantaneous, so Jemeliah doesn't have time to go hostile before he dies, which means he can't infect anyone else with hostility. Unless he survives the FoD of course.

I have used this method on several different playthroughs, and it works well--as long as you can take the guilt of being a murderer.

-Max

 

Well, that was news indeed!

So technically the "whole town goes hostile" requires an NPC that goes hostile and THEN starts spreading the word with a script originating from that character? So the TOWN_HOSTILE flag doesn't get set by killing someone, but by an NPC turning hostile?

What an interesting oversight made by the developers...

 

I decided to re-work my party and give it another go around.

1. Assimar Pal(2)/Cleric
2. Human Rogue(2)/Sorcerer
3. Assimar Pal(2)/Sorcerer
4. Drow Fighter(4)/Monk(3)/Cleric
5. Half Orc Barb(3)/Cleric
6. Wild Elf Sorcerer

This should give me more summons at the start, which I clearly needed. 3 Sorcerers should be deadly considering summons usually make up the front line in HOF.

---------- Added 16 hours, 58 minutes and 40 seconds later... ----------

It wasn't easy, but I made it through the warehouse and underground part. My party level is up to 8 already. I am mixing up my sorcerer spells to have a nice variety amongst the 3 along with all of them getting the most important ones.